Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the United Nations

Report on the Privileges of Koreans in Japan

Yasuhiro Yagi The Vice Chairman, The Civic Activity for Appealing to Abolish the Privileges of Koreans in Japan (Zaitokukai) http://www.zaitokukai.info E-mail: [email protected]

- 1 - 1. Introduction Zaitokukai, The Civic Activity for Appealing to Abolish the Privileges of Korean in Japan was established in 2007, and we have appealed the same idea with the Section 4 of the Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, that does not permit special measures of certain races. About 500,000 of Koreans currently live in Japan, and they say they are all descendants of people who were forcibly brought to Japan, which is not a fact. After the Greater East Asia War (the World War II, the Pacific War), the United Nations (UN) occupied Japan, and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), i.e. the UN, ordered Japan Government to take all Koreans in Japan back to Korea Peninsula. Japan Government prepared ships for the return, and many Koreans came back to the peninsula. However, hundreds of thousands Koreans remained in Japan disobeying the UN’s instruction. In addition, at the same period a lot of Koreans illegally immigrated into Japan. All of the current Korean residents in Japan (not the general permanent residents of Koreans) are descendants of either of the above cases. Japan Government gave the rights of special permanent residences to the Koreans and Taiwanese in Japan, when the Treaty of Peace with Japan took effect in 1952. Koreans of the special permanent residents in Japan have special rights, i.e. privileges, which results in various forms of racial discrimination. We would like to report some of the actual figures of the discrimination, and mention the solutions of our proposals.

2. Issue of Pachinko Pachinko is a private gamble using a device like a recreational arcade game, and is only in Japan. Although all of the private gambles are prohibited by law in Japan, Pachinko has never been punished yet. There are many Pachinko parlors in every downtown in Japan, and therefore

- 2 - under-age people can easily access the gamble parlors. This situation is harmful to the child’s growth. Pathological gambling is recognized as a mental disease by the World Health Organization of UN, and there are more than five millions of the patients of the pathological gambling in Japan. They are caused by addictions to Pachinko without exceptions. We treat with the issue of Pachinko in this report because more than ninety percents of pachinko- affiliates are held by the special permanent residents. Many Japanese patients of addictions to Pachinko are victims of the illegal gambles that are managed by foreigners. We propose solutions against the issue of Pachinko as follows: a) Japan Government should introduce a bill of the restriction on gambles. b) All gambles including Pachinko should be controlled by the state power and limited in locations. c) At least, all gambling halls should be excluded from the two kilometers of the regions centered by either the railway stations or the trunk roads. We expect that the Committee members propose the above solutions to the Japanese delegates. The restriction of Pachinko is also expected as an effective restraint of funding for the North Korean criminal groups that have caused hundreds of abductions.

3. Issue of mass media Not only in Japan, the mass media is the most powerful information transfer agency, and it has controlled public opinions for many years. The Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets was opposed by many agencies of mass media, such as Asahi Newspaper, Mainichi Newspaper, and so on. They mentioned Mr. Takichi Nishiyama as a hero. However, Mr. Nishiyama, one journalist forcibly had sexual relations with a woman who worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, threatened to expose her obscene experience, and illegally got secret information of the

- 3 - Ministry. The Zaitokukai is always introduced as a hate speech group by the mass media in Japan. Recently, many Japanese people have opportunities to know misleading of the mass media, with the growth of the Internet service. They use bulletin board system, and are able to find out the truth that the mass media never report. Many people recognize Mr. Takichi Nishiyama as a sex criminal, and know the actual figures of the Zaitokukai. People in general can vigorously debate in the Internet environments, and refute the controlled public opinions by the mass media. Asahi weekly tabloid journal once insulted Mr. Hashimoto, the Mayor of Osaka-City by accusing his origin. Mr. Yoshifu Arita, a member of the House of Councillors joined the insult to write the article on the Twitter, and some journalists aggressively advertised it. The insult to Mr. Hashimoto spread rapidly like a hate speech. However, most of the Internet users in Japan protested against the article, and succeeded in getting the agency to admit the injustice of accusing one’s origin. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination previously recommended Japan Government repeatedly to accept the Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. We do not think a country adopting the idea of the restriction of expression succeeded in eliminating discrimination. On the other hand in Japan, we accept statements even based on the Communism and the Nazism, and we can solve the problems of discrimination using fully the freedom of expression as well as Mr. Hashimoto’s case. We propose to observe the fully using of the freedom of expression in Japan, i.e., not to recommend Japan to introduce the restriction of expression. We are able to get the justice point by using fully the freedom of expression, and by gathering various opinions publicly. The members of the Committee will find that the freedom of expression is only the way to solve discrimination. We believe Japan will be a good example.

- 4 - 4. The fact of the Hate Speech Issue As mentioned above, the mass media in Japan report the Zaitokukai as a hate speech group without exceptions, although many people who use the Internet know the misleading. We perform demonstrations in order to appeal repealing of the special measures only for Koreans, restoring the public order, and so on. Some NGOs accuse us of taking hate speeches, however, the aggressive phrases like “Kill Koreans,” “Cockroaches,” etc. were expressed by some participants of the demonstrations, and therefore not the appeal points of the demonstrations. Recently we carried out demonstrations in Shin-Okubo (Korean Town) to accuse Korean criminal groups. Korean Towns in Japan are used as nests of the international criminal group, illegal prostitutes, drug dealers, underground bank clerks, etc. Photograph 1 is an evidence of human rights violation. We often find free magazines in Korean Towns, and those include advertisements for searching persons as shown in Photograph 1. The woman in this photograph was taken her identity card away from herself, and also her son was disclosed his name although he was under age when the advertisement was published. All of our demonstrations were permitted by applying to the police stations in advance; however, most of them were not performed smoothly due to violent obstructions by the counter action groups. The obstructions frequently caused by tattooed men as shown in Photograph 2, and all members of the counter action group send us signals of killing us as shown in Photograph 3. Tattoo is the symbol of gang in Japan, and it is often shown in the case of the threat by gangster. The serious problem is the violent obstructions of the anti-social groups were supported by authorities in Japan, such as some politicians (One of them is Mr. Arita as shown in Photograph 3), some scholastics, some critics, some lawyers, many leftist associations like the Human Rights Now, most of the mass media, and all of the Korean associations, i.e., General Association of

- 5 - Korean Residents (Chosoren) and Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan).

Photograph 1 Advertisement for searching a woman

Photograph 2 Tattooed men’s threat

Photograph 3 Manner of “anti-racism” appeal by counter action - 6 - Most of Koreans in Japan believe neither Chosoren nor Mindan. However, both of Chosoren and Mindan acts as the only representation of Koreans in Japan. Chosoren and Mindan are barbaric in common, and those have handled violent men like the current counter action members as mentioned above, in order to force their opinions on Koreans in Japan. Most of Koreans have completely been silenced for fear of the violence and the following secondary violence that is defined as one applying to themselves, their families and surroundings when they try to disclose the primary violence. Chosoren and Mindan have also handled politicians, scholastics, lawyers, the mass media, etc. in order to restrain on disclosing the violence. Sometimes the violence was against Japanese, and currently it is against the demonstrations of the Zaitokukai. Many Japanese and most Koreans know the actual figures of the Zaitokukai, and those of the Korean associations. In order to solve the “hate speech issue,” we propose that Japan Government should regulate the violence of the anti-social counter action groups. We mentioned the necessity of the freedom of expression in the previous chapter, and we expect that the violent figures of the Korean associations will be disclosed by using fully the freedom of expression. Not only in Japan but also in world, all people should make an environment that all people can express without fear of any violence.

5. Issue of Korean school “Korean school” is not the usual school in law of Japan, and the lessons of Korean school are neither controlled publicly nor opened to the public. However, many municipalities give public subsidies to the local Korean schools. The SCAP, i.e. the UN forced Japan Government to disband the Korean schools during its occupation of Japan, because those were absolutely the nests of Korean rioters for disorder. The actual figures of the Korean schools do

- 7 - not change, and the Korean schools are currently the nests of the criminals. For example, the headmasters of the Korean schools cooperate on the abductions of North Korea, deal with illegal drugs, and so on. The Kyoto Korean school occupied the Kanjinbashi Park exclusively for over fifty years, although the park had been set in front of the school for public use, not for private use. If a child who entered the park was non-Korean, he or she was always forced to get out of the park violently by the school stuffs. The neighborhoods were silenced for fear of the primary and secondary violence. The Korean school handled politicians, scholastics, lawyers, the mass media, etc. The neighborhoods repeatedly tried to claim the Kyoto City and the Kyoto Police Office to improve it, but all of the claims were overruled. All of the Kyoto citizens except for the Koreans could not use the Kanjinbashi Park, and they must pay tax including costs for the maintenance of the park. On December 4, 2009, some members of the Zaitokukai protested to the Korean school. The purpose of the protection was to claim the school stuffs to use legally the Kanjinbashi Park. We performed following two demonstrations to appeal the neighborhoods to act for improving it. They again claimed against the Kyoto City, and the park is at present available to use equally for all people, all citizens and all races. The Zaitokukai and the neighbors are satisfied with the current situation of the park, and never want to return it to the previous racial discriminatory form. We propose solutions against the issue of Korean school as follows: a) Japan Government should faithfully put the previous order of the UN into practice to disband the Korean schools. b) At least, any municipalities in Japan should not give public subsidies to the local Korean schools until the criminals of the headmasters are punished. c) The Committee on the Elimination of Racial

- 8 - Discrimination should recognize that the exclusively use of the Kanjinbashi Park by the Kyoto Korean school is one unacceptable case of racial discrimination, on the basis of the Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The case of the Kanjinbashi Park is applied to one form of racial discrimination, i.e. exclusion defined in the Article 1. Since the committee has not treat with this issue, in Japan only the Zaitokukai is accused of the “hate speech,” and the Korean school is not done of the racial discrimination. The protest action of the Zaitokukai aimed at dissolving the discriminatory situation. However, the action for dissolving discrimination is not recognized generally as it, and the perpetrator of the illegal occupation is done as a victim of the racial discrimination. We expect the committee’s fair judgments and right statements.

6. Movements for Abolishing the Koreans’ Privileges The Zaitokukai has appealed to abolish the privileges of the special permanent residents of Koreans in Japan, and this resulted in a movement of revising rights and duties for them. The special permanent residents of Koreans are currently restricted in rights and duties as citizens of South Korea. Prime Minister Kan promised them to register as citizens of South Korea within three years. If all the special permanent residents of Koreans in Japan get rights and duties as citizens of South Korea, they do not need the current privileges. Therefore, the Zaitokukai entirely supports the promise and wants to assist the registration in Korea. We propose that the committee should recommend both Japan and Korea Governments to cooperate with NGOs and to carry out the registration smoothly. We expect the best result.

7. Summary We list issues of Pachinko, mass media, hate speech,

- 9 - and Korean school in this report, and propose our idea to solve them. We want to abolish the privileges and to improve our life in Japan. We expect the Committee will discuss fairly to lead right conclusions.

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